A sister of teenager Daniel McAnaspie, who was murdered 15 years ago when in the care of the State, says the family still has “so many questions” as to how and why child protection services failed him so badly.
Nikita McAnaspie, speaking a fortnight after an inquest into Daniel’s death marked the end of a 15-year legal process, said they had lost “so much more” than a beloved brother, nephew, cousin and uncle.
“This has taken so much joy, so much fulfilment out of our lives. I have two young kids now and I genuinely feel in the last 15 years, instead of trying to fill my life, I have been just trying to survive every day.
“The trauma has taken so much away from my motherhood.”
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Nikita was 19 when Daniel (17) was murdered in February 2010.
Meath county coroner’s court, which returned a verdict of unlawful killing, heard Daniel had “pleaded” with social workers to have him “locked up” in the months before his death, as his life spiralled into increasing chaos.
He had had 20 care placements in the year before he died, including one he could access only after midnight, was self-harming and engaging with people involved in criminality.
From mid-2009 social workers made at least three applications to the HSE’s special care committee for secure care, whereby he would be detained by the High Court and provided with intensive therapeutic interventions. All applications were refused, due to staff shortages.
Coroner Nathaniel Lacy heard the crisis in secure care was “worse” today than in 2010, with just 14 of the 26 secure-care beds open due to staff shortages.
Daniel, from Finglas in north Dublin, had been with friends when lured to Tolka Valley Park by two older men, Richard Dekker and Trevor Noone, in the early hours of February 26th, 2010, and was stabbed to death with garden shears.
His body was found three months later in a drain on farmland in Co Meath.
Dekker was convicted of his murder in 2017 after an earlier acquittal, and Noone of manslaughter.
Dekker’s trial heard that Daniel was with friends socialising in Blanchardstown when they met Dekker and Noone. There was a row with Dekker which appeared to be resolved. Daniel’s friends tried to persuade him to leave with them around 4am but he insisted on staying out, following Dekker and Noone to the park.
Describing her brother as “gentle with a smile so big and so bright” Nikita says: “Daniel would not have seen any wrong in [the two men]. He couldn’t see wrong in people and I’d say he genuinely thought they wanted to be his friends.”
Tanya Ward, chief executive of the Children’s Rights Alliance, says professionals who worked with Daniel described him as “lovable, charismatic and affectionate, keen to be liked and anxious to fit in”.
She has written to the incoming Oireachtas Committee on Children urging it to “put a special focus on Daniel’s case” as it draws up its programme of work. Daniel was “a young boy failed by the State at almost every juncture”, she says.
The fourth of six children, Daniel was known to care services from birth. His father died on Christmas Day when he was four. His mother, who was dependent on alcohol and prescription tablets, struggled to cope. The family was housed in supervised accommodation to support her.
She was unable to overcome her dependence on alcohol and tablets and the children were removed into care when Daniel was 10. They continued to have supervised access with her. She died of alcohol-related issues when Daniel was 14.
Nikita remembers the hope the siblings, but particularly Daniel, had of being reunited with their mother one day. She recalls being at her hospital bedside when she died. “In that moment Daniel knew he wasn’t going home. That hope died that day and I think that pain inside him destroyed him more than anybody really knew. That’s when his trauma really, really started. That’s when he really needed help.
“How could the social workers not realise how much he needed help?” she asks.
Extended family tried to care for him but were unable to meet his needs. Nikita is critical of the lack of supports they got in his increasing turmoil.
Their aunt Sabrina “tried to make it work for Dano” but “she couldn’t hold him. He was out of control. Why did the HSE not help her more?”
Nikita is critical of the failure to ensure he had schooling, and to spot he had dyslexia. It was not diagnosed until he was 15.
“He was so embarrassed he couldn’t read and write. That really affected him. He wanted to learn but missed so much school. If your kid missed 21 days of school you’re in trouble. Why was that okay for Daniel?”
The family stresses his murder had nothing to do with an alleged drug debt referenced at his inquest. There was no indication at Dekker’s and Noone’s trials of Daniel owing them money. “He genuinely just met these two evil people, and trusted them,” says Nikita.
The greatest failing, she says, was the lack of secure care he needed by mid-2009. “If the HSE listened to Daniel, to his family, to all his [social] workers, who all said he needed [secure care], he wouldn’t have been there that night [he was killed]. We would have Daniel here today,” says Nikita.
“Sometimes I close my eyes and I imagine him here. He was so fair. He would light up a room. I can imagine him having a little boy like him.”
The long legal process exacerbated the trauma, she says, adding that the family want no child to experience the failings Daniel did. “Tusla need to open their eyes wide to what kids need.”
Last week High Court judge John Jordan heard cases of three children in respect of whom secure care orders had been made but could not get a bed due to staff shortages.
They included a 15-year-old boy with a neurodevelopmental disorder who was “free-falling”. His father believed that, without secure care, the boy “will die”.
Legal representatives for Tusla said it hoped to increase “our special care capacity to 16 beds by the end of May 2025”.
A spokeswoman said: “We again offer our deepest condolences to those who were closest to [Daniel]. We will now review the outcome of the coroner’s inquest, and work with all stakeholders to implement any changes recommended to further strengthen and improve our services”.
